Eating a vegetarian diet is healthy?
Wrong!
Wrong!
According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the annual all-cause death rate of vegetarian men is slightly more than that of non-vegetarian men (.93% vs .89%); the annual death rate of vegetarian women is significantly more than that of non-vegetarian women (.86% vs .54%)
A Vegetarians diet often lacks important vitamins and minerals to help maintain a healthy lifestyle.
I strongly suggest all vegetarians supplement into their diet a good multivitamin, Vitamin B6/B12, zinc and some kind of protein supplement.
Source: (Am J Clin Nutr 1982 36:873)
When I search for the study listed as your source, I get a table of contents page. There's a study in the list called "Vegetarianism, dietary fiber, and mortality" by ML Burr and PM Sweetnam. Is that the one you mean? It actually found that vegetarianism protected against heart disease, but they do indicate their study leaves the speculation of whether or not the protective affect was due to increased vegetables, decreased meat, or other lifestyle factors. The study is not very convincing regarding protective effects of avoiding meat, especially since most of the "vegetarians" ate some meat. They seem to have been pretty interested in fiber, which not surprisingly, had no association with reducing heart disease. The study makes no mention of sugar intake, exercise patterns, etc.
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